Development Of The Lightweight And Environmental Ceramics With Diatomite

With the gradual development of the industry and improvement of people`s living standard,people now attach more and more importance to the environmental protection of building and the building materials.In recent years,kinds of environmental friendly interior decorative materials,which were made mainly by microporous diatomite,were becoming popular in some developed countries.These novel materials were not only lightweight,nonflammable,soundproof and adiabatic,but also can be applied for humidity adjusting,deodorization,indoor air Cleaning,etc,and importantly,no harmful chemicals were included in these materials.However,it is still a blank space of this area at home so far.Therefore,with the abundant diatomite resource in our country,the development of some novel environmental decorative ceramic tiles were started in this reaserch.In this paper.The lightweight and microporous diatomite,together with Spodumene,Wollasnite,Pyrophyllite,Ball Clay,Talc,Quartz,were introduced into the experiment to modify the fomula of the bisque of the inside wall tile that was developed by our studying team in the earlier stage.The final formula of the bisque was successfully determined by the methods of using for references from the existing experienced formula, using orthogonal experiment design,Contrast experiment,dynamic observation and the modern analyzing means like the X-ray diffraction( XRD),Scanning electron microscopy (SEM),etc.The firing systerm for the bisque was made according to the character of the materials,the results of the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA),the differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) and the differential thermal analysis ( DTA ). With all these experiments,The maximum sintering temperature of the final product was decreased by 10~20℃compare with the former process,and it`s main Physical Properties were discribled as follows:bending strength>21MPa,bulk density≈1.4 g/cm~3(the previous product was about 1.7～1.8 g/cm~3),water absorption<21%.On the basis of the previous research,A new envirnmental lightweight ceramic tile was successfully prepared with the introduction of the albite,Spodumene,Pyrophyllite and Talc into the main material diatomite.the final formula and the firing systerm were determined by the method similar to the former experiment. The main Physical Properties of the final ceramic tile were discribled as follows: water absorption>40%,open porosity>50%,bulk density≈1.2 g/cm~3,bending strength>15MPa.The XRD and SEM analysises of the two foregoing products were also made in this research.The results indicate that the liquid phase and some other new solid phases were formed gradually by the materials with a increasing temperature.Because of a higher sintering temperature and a larger proportion of fluxing agent,more liquid phase was formed in the inside wall tile bisque compare with the latter ceramic tile.The crystal phase of the sintered bisque mainly consists of the Quartz,cristobalite,anorthite and mullite;the main crystal phase of the sintered environmental ceramic tile were Quartz, cristobalite,anorthite,β-Spodumene and albite.Besides,some analysises and conclusions of the sintering law and sintering mechanism of these billets were made by comparing the testing results from XRD,SEM and the main Physical Properties of a series of products which were sintered under different temperature.